EASTERN VOLUNTEERS IN NORMANDY - Eure - Seine-Maritime - August 1944

For the first time in the history of the Battle of Normandy, you will discover the memorable and tragic fate of a battalion of Eastern volunteers engaged within a field division of the German army formed in Seine-Maritime. These men, disillusioned by Stalinism, volunteered to serve in the Wehrmacht in the hope of regaining freedom in their native Russia after a German victory.

A few months after swearing their oath, they found themselves fighting the Red Army and gradually came to realise they were regarded as belonging to an inferior race by the Nazis. As the Second World War evolved, their situation became desperate. Their families were deported, branded as traitors to the motherland. They finally acknowledged they had chosen the wrong side. But their fate was sealed, and all that remained was to trust the German troops surrounding them. Together, they had to learn to know one another, accept their differences and customs, and in some cases, come to appreciate each other.

Finally, Germans and Eastern volunteers found themselves side by side facing the Allies in the Eure and Seine-Maritime in August 1944. After weeks of hard fighting, the few survivors among these Eastern men were taken prisoner and subsequently exchanged with Stalin for horses…

This poignant subject is treated here in depth and sheds new light on this aspect of the war in Normandy.